Cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa associated with rapidly progressive arthritis

✍ Scribed by Yoseph A. Mekori; Lawrence E. Awai; Jerome D. Wiedel; Peter F. Kohler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 456 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780270515

✦ Synopsis

Cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa (CPN) is a disease characterized by a necrotizing vasculitis of smallmedium-sized muscular arteries in the deep dermis and subcutis (1-5). The disease is thought to be a localized process with sparing of the visceral arteries and, as such, is usually not considered a true systemic vasculitis syndrome (1). The skin findings most frequently include painful subcutaneous nodules, livedo reticularis, and ulcers. The course of the disease is known to be either prolonged and benign, or episodic with spontaneous or steroid-induced remissions (3). CPN is not strictly a cutaneous disorder, however. Systemic symptoms, such as fever, arthralgia, neuropathy , and muscle involvement, have been documented in large proportions of patient groups (2,3). Despite the high frequency of arthralgia (52%), the documented cases of arthritis are very rare (3,6,7). To the best of our knowledge, there is only 1 previous report of welldocumented, nondestructive, nonprogressive arthritis associated with CPN (6).